1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an equipment for producing refreshable dry meat, and more particularly to an equipment for vacuum-drying edible raw animal meat such as beef, pork, mutton, and the like at a low temperature in such a manner that the thus dried meat is refreshable substantially to the state of raw meat before drying.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A number of methods for preserving edible meat by drying have been known: namely, non-restorable drying methods such as natural drying with solar energy and drying by blowing hot air over the food, and semi-restorable methods such as freeze-drying under vacuum conditions. However, none of the conventional methods for drying edible meat produce dry meat which can be restored to the quality equivalent to that of fresh meat before drying. More particularly, with the conventional methods of drying edible meat, the inside texture of the fresh meat is damaged in the process of drying, so that it is almost impossible to restore the thus dried meat to the conditions which closely resemble fresh meat. Thus, the use of dried meat prepared by conventional methods has been limited to those which do not require restoration to fresh meat, such as for canning.
Accordingly, there is a demand for a method for producing refreshable dry meat which upon rehydration closely resembles fresh meat (to be referred to as "refreshable dry meat" hereinafter). If any practicable methods for producing refreshable dry meat are found, preservation of edible meat for a long period of time becomes possible and the need for refrigerators and cold storage facilities would be greatly curtailed. Besides, the refreshable dry meat would weigh only about one third of fresh meat, so that transportation and storage of meat would be simplified to a considerable extent. Further, preservation of such refreshable dry meat by vacuum packing with a highly airtight film would provide one of the most useful preserved foodstuffs.